cheered by world leaders, it is the turn of leasing companies to line up for a piece of the action.
“The large majority of these aircraft are likely to be financed through sale-and-leasebacks with perhaps 20% of the financing come from the [Western] export credit agencies,” said aviation adviser Bertrand Grabowski.Airlines with credible proposals can negotiate bargain prices for the eye-watering numbers of planes needed to keep up with gross domestic product and rising incomes in some emerging economies.
For lessors, sale-and-leasebacks are a key path to growing their fleets as an alternative to buying portfolios of jets from rivals or expanding through M&A, at a time when planemakers are running out of planes to sell to the leasing firms directly. That comes after Indian airlines have been especially active in sale-and-leasebacks as a way of generating liquidity from the flow of planes needed to serve the fastest-growing market.
“India, we believe, will be one of our largest markets for the foreseeable future,” chief executive officer Andy Cronin told Reuters last week.